CoreWeave, the specialized AI cloud infrastructure provider, has strengthened its strategic relationship with OpenAI through a new $4 billion deal that will run through April 2029, according to a regulatory filing released Thursday.
The agreement comes just two months after the companies established their initial partnership valued at $11.9 billion over five years. Under that March arrangement, OpenAI also received a $350 million equity stake in CoreWeave as part of the cloud provider's IPO process.
CoreWeave had hinted at the expansion during its first-ever earnings call on Wednesday, mentioning a "$4 billion expansion with an AI enterprise" without identifying OpenAI by name. The company also revealed it had signed on a new hyperscaler client, which analysts from Morgan Stanley and MoffettNathanson speculate could be Google's parent company Alphabet.
The news provided a welcome boost to CoreWeave's stock, which reversed an earlier 9.1% decline to gain approximately 3% on Thursday. Investors had initially reacted negatively to the company's projected annual capital expenditure of $20-23 billion for 2025 – roughly four times its forecasted revenue of $4.9-5.1 billion.
This expanded partnership highlights the evolving dynamics between major AI players. CoreWeave, which began as a crypto mining operation before pivoting to AI infrastructure, has positioned itself as a specialized alternative to traditional cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Microsoft remains deeply connected to both companies – it's a major investor in OpenAI and represented 62% of CoreWeave's revenue in 2024.
The deal underscores the massive infrastructure investments required to power advanced AI development. As OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted in March, "CoreWeave is an important addition to OpenAI's infrastructure portfolio, complementing our commercial deals with Microsoft and Oracle, and our joint venture with SoftBank on Stargate."